Saban not worried about momentum carry-over from Tennessee victory

TUSCALOOSA | The University of Alabama football team retuned to the practice field Monday after having the weekend off due to the team’s bye in the schedule.

If anything, the time off was a little unusual because last year the Crimson Tide didn’t get to enjoy a week off until after playing 12 straight weeks, and wound up losing all three November games.

However, the bye week might have killed any momentum from the 41-17 victory against Tennessee on Oct. 20, or at least that’s how Coach Nick Saban approached this week’s practices.

“I’m going to use bowl games as an example,” he said. “My first five years as a coach at Michigan State we never won a bowl game because we always tried to carry the momentum of the end of the season into the bowl game. So we had six weeks of practice, six weeks of off-and-on conditioning, and by the time the game came everybody was sick and tired of practicing and getting ready for the game and they were not ready to play psychologically. So we changed that format at LSU [and] had a little bit more success in bowl games when you just said, ‘Guys, you’ve got down time. Start 14 days before a game and we’ll go to work for the bowl game when it comes,’ and not try to sustain that and carry it forward.

“I think when you have a bye week you try to practice and emphasize things and you really don’t know until this week in terms of the psychological disposition of your players and how they’re approaching things as to whether you have been able to sustain it or not. But the greatest lesson our players can learn is they’ve played a little higher standard with a little more consistency in the game and that’s something that they have to know is important in having an opportunity to beat or compete against really good football teams.”

Defensive system

With some of the Louisiana media already on-hand for Saturday’s game, a number of players were asked about the complexity of Saban’s defense and their learning curve.

“It is a little more complex than what we ran last year, but the guys are really coming together and started to understand it a whole lot better — making our checks and getting in the right places, which showed a whole lot last Saturday,” junior safety Rashad Johnson said. “We’re really growing into the system. It takes a little while to get used to it.”

Players indicated that the biggest tweaks they have at this point of the season are the new adjustments and calls they make for specific teams.

“It’s only hard if you make it hard,” senior end Wallace Gilberry said.

Injuries and suspension

Junior linebacker Ezekial Knight (ankle), and return specialist Jonathan Lowe (ankle), both practiced. Neither wore black signaling no contract.

“I don’t have any new information on the suspended players from the Tennessee game,” Saban said. “We’ll be glad to share that with you when we get it.”

Junior guard Antoine Caldwell, sophomore running back Glen Coffee, junior guard Marlon Davis, and sophomore defensive backs Marquis Johnson and Carlos Rogers, were suspended prior to the Tennessee game for violating “institutional policy involving impermissible receipt of books.” All practiced Monday.

Tide-bits

With two starting offensive lineman still out, the second unit was, from left to right, senior Chris Capps, freshman Taylor Pharr, senior Morgan Garner, freshman David Ross, and sophomore Drew Davis.

Although junior end Bobby Greenwood (ankle) saw significant playing time against Tennessee, he still lined up with the second unit behind sophomore Brandon Deaderick. Freshman Brian Motley (ankle) was likewise behind sophomore Lorenzo Washington.

Gilberry may have had the line of the day when a Louisiana reporter asked him if he had been recruited by LSU. “Not at all, I wasn’t recruited by anyone … you missed a story line.” However, he was topped by his cell phone, which had “Bad to the Bone” as the ringtone.

Reach Christopher Walsh at christopher.walsh@tuscaloosanews.com or at 205-722-0196.